If you ever need to watch a series of video clips and take notes, or if you need to get dailies or raw footage to clients or collaborators for comments, you know what a huge hassle it can be- doing window burns, waiting hours for renders, making DVDs, spending hours encoding, and then there’s the hassle of the review process- having to continually hit pause on a DVD remote and write down the timecode you see on the screen.

Problem solved!

Now, there’s QT Movie NoteTaker!

This is a free, easy-to-use program from DVcreators.net that simplifies the process of taking movie notes. This application lets you load a Quicktime movie, then click a button to stop the movie, enters the movie time into your notes automatically, then waits for you to write a brief or lengthy comment.

You can load a series of movies and each movie will automatically have a header with the movie name, length, and a place to write overall comments. When you’re finished, click a button to save your notes as a text file, or another button to email your notes to someone.

.5 is the current release, we have plans for future versions, feel free to add your comments with requests.

Export the edit as a Quicktime movie- either in online resolution (if you are delivering via Firewire drive) or web-friendly format, like H.264 or Sorenson 3 (if your client is across the country or world)

Deliver the Firewire drive or ftp the edit

Voila! Now your collaborator can easily take notes and get them to you or the editor.

Features:

loads anything that can be played in Quicktime Player(PJPEG, H.264, MPEG/MPEG2, AVI, Windows Media have not been tested but should work- let me know!

recurring notes feature- if you need to enter a certain note multiple times, rather than typing it over and over, or copying and pasting, you can just enter the note in the recurring notes field, and add it with one click to your notes along with the current time of the movie

Looking for help to apply this program into a filemaker applications. Really all I need is the ability to click a button to pause video and grad the current time and the hit another button that goes to quicktime to that timecode. Just like you have in this Qt Movie note maker. I guess you can say I would like to find a way to get a watered down version of this application.

Part of my comment was eaten because I put the greater than / less than symbols in. Here’s the affected sentence again with the missing words:

“So far I’ve noticed that if I click 3 shift-command-return times, the video will begin playing again, but then I must pick up my cursor and put it back into the typing field in the correct location again.”

automatically enters movie time in notes when stop button is clicked. Does not perform this fiunction. I only get an abbreviated window for QT, not the full function window when I open a movie in the appliication. I’m on mac osx 10.3.9

Really nice application – simple and useful. This version worked with my PAL 25 fps footage. Making it possible to off-set the TC so that it could accurately note source TC as well would greatly increase its usefulness for some people. Excellent – keep it up!

Top idea, which I will certainly make use of, and which will save me oodles of hassle in burning and re-burning time coded rushes for clients to scribble over – agree with comments re hot keys, although so far seems to work without too much extraneous mouse-grabbing (enter key stops and starts movie ok and enters time – just an issue in toggling between typing note mode and stop/start movie mode, but hey…..)

It would be wonderful if it also provided the source time code.
Ya never know where in the workflow you might end up using a cool tool like this.
And sometimes videographers will start reels with the hour indicating the reel number.
If you have several clips from the same guy-different reels the notes could get all messed up if they don’t reflect the source time code.

I love how it can enhance a remote workflow!

Can’t wait until you have some kind of zoom in and zoom out to support larger frame sizes, like HDV.

And this is a great way to watch technical training movies and take notes as you go! Wow does it make things easier. I think something like this should be integrated into the UI of evey serious training program movie. It would definitely benefit to be able to click on any of the times in the note window and automatically re-run (or review) from there and then return to where you left off.

Great app.
I highly second or third the need for a start/stop keyboard function, , and another key combo for going back to frames noted. Maybe a command-tab or something so that you could jump back and forth to the different frames you have in the list.
This is going to be HUGELY helpful.
Thanks

Thanks Josh,
Great idea. I’ve been using Notebook to take notes . . . jumping back and forth, rewinding . . . great software program, just not easy! This is easy. I like the idea of being able to mark frames in notes, to be able to go back to specific points made in tuts.
I agree that this should be with all QT training videos.
Thanks again.
Abbie

I have been thinking about wanting to take a stab at this myself for a long time….using File Maker Pro, as you can import QT’s, .jpg’s and other media formats…

So, good job on doing something about it! The clean no frills tablet-like
feel (ala a WACOM tablet) was not lost on me.

What a great tool to have in the field…to get a jump on things, or make a pesky producer feel useful! 😎

That said:
1, I agree with those who sited the need for a ‘hot button’

2, I also agree with the feature to somehow click to a previous in-point from the notes and it takes you to that shot/scene…I wonder if that would work with creating a link in conjunction with FCP’s Marker feature?

3, I like to make short hand notes about the main movement…”L-R”
(left to right)….”R-L” (right to left), etc…so it would be nice to allow for at least three recurring note cells…that alone would speed things up (for little old me at least) by 25%

4, I am sure you mentioned this, but do you have plans to have Movie Note Taker read SMPTE instead of “counter code”? (or at-least set the counter to it?)…4a, but then again you have the pull down0 for selecting FR’s so this implies some math is going on to read code correct?…or not? I played around with FR selections and Play Back and the associated time code did not change. So, this is either buggy or extraneous?

5, Maybe allow the option to use COLOR as another marker…Use it to define the usual ‘good take’ to ‘PRINT IT take’…or to designate elements for an effects shot, Interior v. Exterior…which brings me back to item#3…by allowing for more recurring cells AND the option to choose or not choose a color to help identify a shot easily allows the user a great work flow set of tools. When I suggest color I am not suggesting ugly blotches of color swathes all over the place….Use a simple color swatch to fit over the space of the code – like a transparency window..just like a highliter! This is a constant, not a variable choice and I would imagine not difficult to program?

Josh,
Great idea!
Makes things so much easier for my FCP edit.
My question or suggestion is that can you stop and move back and forth frame by frame like in FCP? This will precisely give points to note.
Once again congradulations on this achievement,
Thanks,

Great tool!!! Great Idea. I can’t believe no one has thought of it sooner.

This tool is very usuable as well as useful in it’s current state.

Here are a few features I like to see in the development of future features.

1. screen shot capture bank. I thought it would be great to have a small capture of that particular frame as a quick reference as well adding to emailed notes.

2. frame by frame advance button

3. simple draw mode. this would allow you to draw right on a particular frame that has been noted. sometimes a visual note is just as descriptive as the written one, sometimes even more decriptive.

4. Note markers. it be nice if you could click on a note and have the playhead go right to the frame that been noted.

5. On screen timestamp display.

6.Quicktime note taker file(.qmn) format which could be a xml driven format. Mutiple users users could save there notes and comments, and user name,and time stamp data to distribute amongst a group and be able to track who said what on what date at what time all in one document. Perhaps it could have a sync feature that allows diffrent people to send you their notefile and then QTN could based on GMT time could compile all note references and display the notes in order based on the the users name and time stamp.

7. Keyboard shortcut Keys. the less the use has to touch the mouse the better this app is for fluent realtime note taking.

Thats all I got for now. Great Job! I hope you continue with development. The future of this app looks very promising.

This could be a great tool for us. Some clients have footage they have already shot. They drop off boxes of tapes and want something edited from it, but don’t realize the time it takes to sort through everything – and they balk at the cost. Now I can have them sort through on their own and leave the editing to us (which we’d much rather do that shuttle through hours of tapes).

I’d love to see this program work as an offline logging program for Final Cut Pro: simple enough for a non-editor, but able to record all the information needed for professional use.
– FCP quick keys – “I” to mark the IN point, “O” for out point, etc.
– “J, K, L” shuttling keys.
– Export to Tab Delimited format for easy import as a Batch List into FCP – and naming and ordering of columns to match the Batch List format.

I second the suggestions for:
– Read SMPTE
– FCP marker insertion
– Screenshot feature – especially for archival purposes. You could save the text and images for each source tape to know exactly what is in your library.

This is excellent! I happen to have a physical disability which prevents me from using the external keyboard. I use an application called KeyStrokes which is an onscreen keyboard. Physically taking notes is impossible. I tend to use TextEdit which means launching another application. Your application will make easier to take notes as well as indicating the exact time in the video as to where a problem exists. I think this would be useful to many people.

I which to thank you very must for developing this application and I also wish to thank you for allowing me to comment on it. I certainly will make use of it.

I’ll test it out in a bit, but this would be a great help, thanks for allowing us to try it out. I have a question: What if you stop at a point and make a note and then decide you want go back say 8 frames earlier, can you scrub the note backwards to that point? or do you delete and go back the few frames?

Fantastic work. I have given it a bit of a run on both PAL and NTSC, with all sizes of QT and it works really well, I like the fact that if you use the enter key it starts and stops, allows you to type and hit return off it goes again. Some of the suggestions re intergration to FCP etc are good ideas and the screen capture/thumbnail suggestion would be fantastic. Thank you for all the hard work you have put into this programme.

Great little utility. It would be good when scrolling through footage if the timecode could follow and record the T/C changes as you toggle. ie left and right arrow navigation doesn’t change the captured T/C. Great little addition though. Congratulations.

What I would find helpful is to have a counter showing what the timecode reading at the playhead is, so that the playhead could be repositioned according to the notes. If you need to return to make further notes, it would then be possible to locate the footage at that particular point.

Works great. Nice and simple. Definitely usefull. I can see this application blowing up with all kinds of neat features like a mouse scroll feature, and being able to email your updates, allowing the user to import markers and notes and load them into the movie…Brilliant!!

Nice app Josh. it would be useful to have a button that could import the text file from a partially completed set of notes, in case all the notes can’t be done at one time. At the present time from a TextEdit file, but the button could save a bit of time.

I love the software, it’s so easy to hand off to a client/boss and get the notes i need to edit. i would love to see it grow, perhaps with a thumbnail shot as “guy shaddock” mentioned.
importing saved notes would also be helpful.
FCP markers would be great. I will continue to use this product regardless.. it’s great software. thanks so much!

someone mentioned about final cut pro markers, why not final cut pro plug-in? I really like this software but there are times when you cant always export a movie, but just need to take notes in a timeline for yourself. a plug-in would be great for when you are working on a major project and have ideas for certain spots of TC that need to be taken note of. other than that this software is awesome because i hate writing down TC all the time so good work and keep it coming i cant wait till the next version.

Couple of feature requests:
(1) display the timecode as the movie is playing (like QT Player)
(2) add another button ‘log’ that just adds the timecode entry
i.e. I play then pause close to spot I want then use arrow keys to nudge to the exact frame. I’d then click the ‘log’ button to make an entry in the notetaking area.

A very nice program. It has a clean layout and is very straightforward… even my most tech challenged clients will be able to use it.

I have to say that it could use a keyboard command for stopping to take a note (n maybe?) and that the jkl and space bar should work the same way they do in Final Cut Pro (or any other editing app) for easier search within a movie clip.

I love being able to e-mail my notes without saving, copy and paste, or anything else. Fabulous.

Josh, I did try the QT Note taker and I consider it is a very useful tool, I am glad that u can import also DV file, the only sugestion i can make is about the printing option, when I tryied to print my notes i had to open an TXT editor it will be usefult to have the “print” button right in the QT Note Taker main window..

Looks terrific Josh. Something I’ve always wanted. One question: I’m working in HDV. When open QT Movie Note Taker I’m only seeing a small portion of my image … like about 1/4 of the image. I can’t drag the window to reveal any more of the image. Is there a trick? Or do I wait for the HDV version?

Thanks Josh, great job!
For the few (?) Europeans who might love to use this app. I just wanted to let you know that on our keyboard we cannot direktly access the backslash key (to start stop the movie) we have to type e.g. alt+shift+7. It would be of great help if you could implement a internationally valid key for that. Is an F key possible? or a combination with command e.g. command shift?

This is a great thing for me, epsecially becuase I am working with a photographer in Hawaii. He sends me footage to edit, I send him a preview over the intenet and ask him to log specific scenes. This will make things a lot easier! Thanks!
Robert

I’m using the latest version .14 but the stop/start hot key doesn’t seem to work anymore. I’ve tried return and/or enter but the movie just keeps on playing although I am able to make notes I am unable to stop/start the picture.

I’ve been playing with QT Movie Note taker past day, and must say i felt it as a relief for one of my most hated thing in the editing work : watching and taking notes.

As many, i had given it up to a paper and pen and the space bar / mouse.

So I itried it and it works nicely.
Thanks and bravo Josh for this very promising app !

But now I ‘d like to go on the critics :
Don’t get me wrong, this is not about offending you, just to help push you to your best !
That said,
One thing bugged me on the first use : i dragged a movie to the window, and…not implemented. Well, that’s minor.

But deeper on the way the app works, i’d like to share a view : this is a kind of software i had been “dreaming” of (true !) and had always conceived it as a software that should make you feel you are completing this takin’notes task “hands off”.
Having to press the mouse to stop the movie is a burden in this aspect.
So is the need to stop the movie to take additionnal notes.

I think there must be a way to make this task keyboard-only.
Define short cuts for play/pause/ffwd and so on for movie control. (er…cmd-_JKL?)
Have “main” and “secondary” timecodes auto-inserts : Main for those when you stop the movie to write down and secondary for those when you just write down impressions without stopping the movie.

Have every keyboard entry logged so you can analyse start/stop of typing to base the secondary timecode inserts on.

Well, that’s how i ‘d see it, but it’s just my 2 cents !-)

Keep up the good works.
David

PS : funny, i was writing this on the “quick answer” field on the forum’s thread which has just been posted by duncan.

then i remembered there was a comments section here, and now discover this is the page for future developpment. Well, as i think this falls in this category, i’m rather posting it here.
Haven’t read all the comments, guess my words will just be an encore of things already said, but…hey, i wanted to share my thoughts !

Yep. I’m with Dan. Shoulda read the changes in the help info. HOWEVER… some of that updated info should also be posted here as a matter of course for those of us who look here first. Especially since this has become an informative forum for those of us who are directly in the loop as this great and useful utility comes of age.

I just recently finished logging 38 hours of video for a documentary I’m cutting on FCP. This would have come in extremely handy, great program! I’ll be using it from here on out.

My only complaint is that I had trouble emailing my notes, downloading worked fine. There might be a loose nut behind the wheel, but I thought I’d let you know in case others were experiencing the same difficulty.

First the bug report
then the good stuff ( feature requests ) later, perhaps as a separate post

I’ve tried to crash it by running a whole lot of different apps alongside and doing system level changes such as changing display parameters. So far so good. I’m running 10.3.9 on a G4/400 AGP, but later this week I’ll try it on a new ibook with the Stripey Cat OS

Email functions worked OK as did cut ‘n paste clipboard functions with all sorts of other apps. No problems with file flydials, and restarting new reels on the same list did fine. Also I had no trouble doing minimizations and back again from the task bar under a number of circumstances.

Importing .AVIs worked, but the resolution was really crummy, like 25% quality compared to a desktop QT player on the same file. When the QT player was enlarged to match the MovieNoteTaker ( MNT ) it showed the paucity of the file format by being equally miserable, but resizing QT to Normal size ( Cmnd 1 ), image quality restored at the first STOP of the next PLAY. Even when opening the file with the whole window reduced so that an import is about 100% of clip size, I was still stuck with poor image. Doing that results in less text area so, better to have that larger there.
I don’t know if that is a fault of the .AVI format or more probably the system call that Josh’s programming language is making, is being returned with a limited function set within a player to do a quality job required. Could it be that Apple limits what gets sent out to HIgh level language compilers the things they want reserved for the official proprietory QT player alone? Hopefully not, it doesn’t make sense for that policy.

Importing Quicktimes however reproduced faithfully comparing to the QT player screen enlarged to the same size as the pane in MNT.

I use a 2nd display and I cant get the main window to stay in it. By that i mean the only way i can take it over is to drag the top left of the window into the second screen, and usually clicking the green resize widget automatically fills that screen. ( the one I’m using currently is only temporarily 640 x 480 ). What happens is; that is resized back into the main display. This may not be an error, but a result of the design decision to fix the window width to suit a 1152 x 870 display forcing the system to choose the best display for it.

There are some unpredictable behaviours in resizing on my large res display. sometimes I only get YY axis resizing, and sometimes I get only XX if that’s the first mouse motion made, with an eventual freedom in both axiis, but only for shrinking. The only way to enlarge with XX again is to hit the green resize widget, then the first mouse movement of dragging outwards.
Interestingly, even though there’s room to spare on a large res set display, the green resize button sets the window default such that the “go to Movie Notetaker on the web” button overlaps the clickable logo ( which does the same thing – more on that later )

Also resizing the help page ( in any screen ) causes the bottom of the text to be lost when fullsizing it again.
I miss the rice paper interface of the earlier OSX’s and i’ll be glad to see the end of brushed aluminium. As usual there’s no clear indicator from system level as to where a mouse can grab a window, but this is a minor issue.

one other thing:
the spacebar indeed does also act as a start stop when the mouse has clicked in the preview pane. The only way to activate the backslash function again is to click on the “Start Movie Again” bar. I read some feedback above about different ways to stop/restart via keyboard only, and I take it Josh selected a key that would not otherwise be used in normal text signaling the OK to roll tape again. Yes a modifier could be used on say the spacebar for a restart such as Cmnd-space or Opt-Space, but a two key thing just ain’t the same as a “one touch”.

ya done well Josh, Better’n Cupertino who have egg on face for not seeing the need for this, or of they had, for sitting on their hands with it.

I must start off by acknowledging this: as a past programmer there is a balance between a simple app that does one thing really well, against feature rich app that becomes complex in its interface and Intuitive use thereof. And we realize these things take time to produce

Josh you have the confectionary recipe spot on with this one, so i really believe that the suggestions you take up from these posts be incorporated in a Registerable version, and the current ( minor niggles fixed ) Freeware version left as is. There are good reasons for having a small charge on this quality of work.

onward:
YES to J-K-L behaviour
—
YES to thumbnails ( in the text area, not under the preview pane),
—
YES to SMPTE visible near the preview pane. Hopefully some way of adding our own HH:MM:SS:FF offset too. and of course YES to clicking the TimeCode text field to re-position the playhead
—
YES to a simple box or circle draw object overlaid on the particular frame stopped at to save describing in the text where-abouts they are referring.
—
Does anyone see the need for Shift-Arrows to advance/reverse in 1 second steps?
—
An independently sizable preview pane ( half-normal-double-max-custom ) would be nice, but not essential
—

Who else wants Movie NoteTaker to prepare a listing using AUTO SCENE-DETECT like iMovie?
think of it, the file is loaded, with the list of clickable Timestamps – if that’s you, just quote “heat ‘n serve”.

—
The text-file saved out restarts in TextEdit OK as it should, but perhaps a mirrored file in a proprietory format that is associative with the movie files viewed, be saved somewhere in the OS Users area?? This way selecting the file calls up the first movie on the list ready to go.
Or make the movie:name in the text listing when a new reel is described active with a link that calls the file up when clicked on. This would save multiple reviewers the time in getting the right clip in the viewer. But then doing it that way doesn’t produce a text-only file if there are embedded objects in it. hmmmm
—
The area under the preview pane is empty. Perhaps a series of nameable event tracks like the progress bar itself under a reveal arrow? The idea is that wherever the progress is stopped for a comment, a polymark ( hollow diamond etc ) shows up at that point, on that track, which is snap-clickable within a small range
This allows a multiple reviewers to know where there are already comments to zero in on, such as matters of audio, lighting, colour correction, etc. etc without having to search where it has been discussed already.

It would also be good to copy or move ( Cmnd or Option Drag ) the markers across tracks to also copy and move the corresponding texts which are collated as together. This way Cosmetics – say – may quickly find and decide a producers comment is better handled by Wardrobe, or that the Electrician and Set/Props can quickly and easily go hammer and tongs over the same comment by the Match-mover in contiguous text paragraphs.

not too shabby eh?

It also allows a single reviewer to group like-for-like when takes or other contexts aren’t shot one after another on the same reel. I also see it as the device to Mark Good or prioritize for Order-of-Merit
—
and finally, I can’t believe that in 2006, Apple still does not provide system level tools for apps tracking use of time spent on various files within projects ( yes i know we go to meetings & refer to other clients work and such outside of the job scope – but hey that’s why we have a computer on our desk to infer whats going on – rather than wasting time with genie shrink/grow , or “moveaside” effects while the Ivy grows over the door! )

Josh if you can manage a simple log file in the OS User support area to help us keep track of our and collaborators chargeable time via keyboard or mouse activity ) , hopefully Cupertino will wake up and come back with common protocols so that these things are reportable back to iCal.

1. I would like to be able to ‘Load Notes’, to load my notes back into the application.
That way, if I need to stop, and finish taking notes on a different day, I could.

2. It would be helpful to be able to right-click on the movie image,
and have the option to save an image of current frame for reference.

3. Click on note timecode to jump to position in movie. (You know this already.)

4. When mouse focus is not on note’s textfield, the arrow keys should advance/back
one frame. (Without Cntl or Cmd keys.)

5. When mouse focus is not in note’s textfield, hitting the Space Bar should
Start Movie Again, or Stop Movie to Add a Note…. same as clicking the button.

6. Print. — It would be nice to have a Print command in the menus,
which could print the notes… with an option/preference toggle to print
the Timecode in Bold (or color, or underline), and option
to Print With Thumbnail images (beside or just above accompanying Timecode).

7. Fix Bug with Email Notes button… Currently, it truncates the notes
when it encounters an amphersand (‘and’ sign) in the notes.

We have been searching for a reliable tool to log raw HDV tapes and were excited to find your solution. I think you’ll make a couple $$ when the Notetaker is released in a Pro version.

That being said, we are unable to use Notetaker in it’s current form b/c of it’s inabililty to read source timecode. I tried typing in our code in the MovieTime field however it just reverts back to 0 once the video is played/stopped.

Also, a Notepad with margin settings would be fantastic, too.

We will keep an eye on future updates and hope to be able to use Notetaker soon.

Thank you for your efforts. Notetaker is a great addition to the media world.

Thanks. A very useful bit of software. My wishlist? Recurring notes with multiple possible comments. Click on Recurring notes and the list of user submitted notes should come up. The user then clicks on the one he/she wishes inserted.

Josh,
Wow, I love this app! Great work and it’s fits a real need.
Three things would make this app even more powerful for me:

(1) keyboard shortcut for stop movie and take a note

(2) as currently constructed the notes can only be saved as a text file. however, a really important feature in your program is the creation of a link that goes directly to the place in the movie that the note is about. I would love to MAINTAIN THE LINKS: either in an exported file or within a QTMovieNotetaker file.

(3) when working on editing a QT movie it would be wonderful to have the ability to open 2 (or more) movies at once with the accopanying notes. This way I could look at “version 2” to re-look at changes I wanted to make, then move over to “version 3” to make sure the changes I’ve made really hit the mark.

Again, great work. This program really fits a big need for multimedia development.

Simply Amazing!
Being a FCP fanatic, there was one thing about Premiere 2 that impressed me: Clip Notes. NoteTaker brings this amazing feature to EVERYBODY! I would pay for this program, but it is even more stellar since it is free.

A feature request:
Though this is a little technical and would have to be implemented later on, it would be nice to be able to “draw” on the video, then add that screen shot to the notes… lets say you want to circle one person and say “this person isn’t smiling,” you could draw the circle, add the pic to the notes, then the other person could visually see it.

Is it possible to load notes previously taken and saved? This way I could open and load the notes from another editor and easily click through them to find the exact place and review. Rather than having to enter timecodes manually when I am viewing with just the text file.

Thanks for such a quick response! I missed that about the ]-key. Works very nicely and simply.

Yippee, glad to hear “saving movie links” will be in a Pro version.

Also, thanks for considering my suggestion #3. I’m not a progammer, so I have no idea how difficult this is to implement. But from an end users point of view, being able to compare and contrast recent versions of a QT product is useful.

This software is such a great idea. I’ve been thinking that it would even be MORE useful if it could read a variety of formats: MP3, AIF, and so on. In short, any of the type of materials that might go into the making of a QuickTime movie.

I’m a University faculty member, and my students would really benefit from being able to take notes interatively within QT Movie Note Taker while listening to their audio files (before any video or images are created).

I don’t know if this is hard to program, but extended capability to read a variety of formats that QuickTime itself can read would enhance the scope and power of your app.

Josh: I haven’t tried your software yet, have just been reading over your revision list and this user comments area thus far.

In regards to the notes file associated to each digital video, it sounds as if you’re adding a XML compliant file output option to the upcoming QTMN pro version.

Ronnie McBride had previously suggested integrating functionality into the app so multiple users could add their own date&time-stamped notes & comments into the associated video log file.

My suggestion is that you parse your QTMN descriptive data for XML output compatible with the MPEG-7 Metadata Standard. Aside from the option of a discrete XML output file, the metadata can also be embedded directly into the video file. Extending the idea of multi-user videoclip viewing/logging, tying into a web-based streaming video gallery application is one of countless ways to exploit the potential of integrated metadata.

Content creators can drag & drop their video clips into an application such as Movie Gallery ( http://moviegallery.bitfield.se ) which automatically creates complete dynamic video gallery websites. After uploading to the new site to your server, you’re ready to go.

Content can be visually searched & selected with clip thumbnail previews in a scrolling top menu, or you can input a text query to quickly locate the desired content in your chosen library or shotlist.

Imbedded video clip information: format, codec, FPS, resolution, clip duration/timecode, keywords, locations, actors, author, copyright, rating, etc is displayed in an info box alongside each clip as it is viewed online. The gallery templates can be customized to suit specific needs, and the metadata can be connected & mapped to any element in an XHTML/XML document, for enhanced online applications. The current version of Movie Gallery primarily shines as an online community showcase for your video works of art. However with an afternoon of web-design customization, your could meet the collaborative logging needs of your shot logging team. New metadata would be written dynamically back to the moviegallery.xml file – then later downloaded to your local machine for executive review.

I know I’m off on a little tangent from the core of QT Movie Note Taker… but thought you (Josh) and others might find this a worthwhile read. I’m always eager to share.

Hi,
Good idea, long overdue, i’ve used various catdv/TEP etc in the past but the functionality that is still needed is the ability to log from a dvd source eg put in dvd, hit play and log as it goes.
Many episodic tv shows supply dalies on DVD and ripping/converting just isnt an option.

This looks like a great app for transcribing interview. When I worked in radio news, I would record all interviews – in person and telephone – for sound bytes and accuracy. Recently I did an interview for a magazine article, and taped it on my PD170 as I don’t have a separate audio recorder. I then created a DVD using OneStep DVD in iDVD5. To transcribe the interview, I played the DVD, and used TextEdit. With playback and text in one app, QT Movie NoteTaker looks like a less cumbersome solution. I’m going to download it now.

Is there any way to turn off the “movietime” every time you stop and start the movie? Yes, it’s great for notes with timecode approximation. But transcribing an interview, for example, would be nicer with the ability to turn off the time so that you have a body of text that could be imported into a word processor, or Final Draft AV. Then again, there is always the old copy and paste function to get around the “movietime”. Just a suggestion.

This is a great, smooth running app. I just used it today in a client review situation for the first time, and it worked perfectly! I saved the notes and printed them out, and now I have a good base for making the changes the client asked for. This is one of the most useful applications I’ve seen in a long time. I do see a couple of things that I think would be really good additions, though:

I’d like to be able to reload the movie with it’s set of notes, in order to take advantage of the jump feature at a later date. If this is already possible, I don’t see how to do it. It might be that you save a file that references the movie and opens up in the QT Movie Notetaker window, or you could have an option in the Save dialog to save as text (which is the way it is now) or as a Notetaker file, which includes the movie. I would find this very useful.

Also a way to start and stop the movie without generating a note would be nice. Perhaps including the QuickTime control bar under the movie would do this, and then a note would be generated only when you press the “stop movie and take note” button.

I like the simplicity of the program. It does what it’s supposed to. With these two improvements I think it would be absolutely fantastic!

Hi
Josh . This is a blessing to the video world and those who appeciate logical work processes.
I was wondering if the movie could log in the frames ( as in animation) besides the timecode display. It will be a great help to animators who need key frame and other frame related detail. This feature could sell great.
BRILLIANT. BRILLIANT BRILLIANT

1- JKL playback/jog keys
2- Space Bar playback start/stop
3- keys to move one frame at a time
4- a way for my colaborator to open my nots IN the program to comment on them
4- better playback of DVCPRO-HD footage. My 1080 stuff stutters too much to make frame acruate notes.

Saw Adobe’s ‘Adobe Clip Notes’ included with Premiere Pro at NAB this year, and hoped against hope that someone would create such a utility that non-Premiere editors could use. Looks like it’s happening.

Now, my observations – and I haven’t been able to read ever entry here, so forgive me if I post a duplicate or two.

1 – Video is extremely jumpy. I am viewing QT’s done with Avid’s DV codec, so that may be the issue. Will try later on with Sorenson and such. WMV’s don’t work at all, and this would be nice, mainly for the file size/quality ratio.

2 – Email function doesn’t seem to work well with Thunderbird. All that get’s included in the email is…

3 – Would be nice to be able to resize the main application window. If I encode the QT to a smaller size, say 320 x 240 for file size consideration), it looks real crappy when it expands to fill the player screen.

Josh – I’ve got a hot Paypal account just waiting for you to release the Pro version.

This is great idea, a really useful tool. I would like to use it to critice my film students work. It would be great if I could return a file to my students with the movie and notes together so that they could immediately review my comments and see the related material. Thanks

this is geat tool, I do reality shows we make tons of QT for reviews/revisions, so when will it work just like an edit keyboard or maybe even a custom key setup, if we had JKL keys, in/out keys, space bar as a play /stop key that would put this over the top making this an industry standard tool.

Would love to be able to resize the app’s window, or maybe have the video window resize automatically to whatever size the video is. If video is encoded to a smaller size, then played in the program, it’s really ugly. Lots of clients think that this is the way their final video will look, and we have to go through the education process about pixelation and such.

Also, WMV doesn’t seem to work at all. Since this is the standard for web video transfer, it would be nice to have the ability for it to play in QTMN.

Thanks for a great program. I would like to see a version that offers the ability to import someone elses notes. If I send a quicktime to a director and he makes notes and emails them back to me it would be great to import them into the program and have them link to the same quicktime on my machine. Then it would funtction as it normally does with the jump to notes option, etc.

I think this is the basis for a great program, and since there is going to be a ‘pro’ version, I would like to add my 2 cents, since the features aren’t listed.

When I collaborate with my videos, the client looks through a compressed online version and logs the tapes with both in and out points and some minor notation. They do this in an Excel spreadsheet in Windows. They then email the spreadsheet to me and I perform the edits on my Mac. – somewhat cumbersome, but not too bad.

So my suggestion would be to have both in and out points selectable in NoteTaker instead of just an in point, otherwise editors won’t know how much of the segment the note refers to. (Also the keyboard shortcuts of ‘i’ and ‘o’ would be nice with this arrangement, and having it add a space for comments that you can go back and fill in later.)

I am working with compressed H264 movies with burnt-in timecode and there is a difference between the QT display and my burnt in code – it would be great to be able to control an offset so as to make the code correct.

The ability to take a snap of a particular frame and paste that into the log would also be great. that

Great idea. I would really need the ability to continue a previously saved note-taking session. Right now, I can copy/paste the previous notes into the window, but all of the timecode links into the movie are lost. Also, I can’t email the notes to another person such that they can continue the session.

In this regard, it would be useful to be able to specify one’s initials, and have each comment prepended with the initials automatically. That way, if several people are commenting, you know who said what.

I would also like the ability to mark in/out points.

Finally, the scrubbing function needs to be improved, or, at least make the arrow keys work just like the J,K,L keys in FCP. There should also be keys to jump one second forward and one second back so that one could very quickly find a particular spot.

Great idea! I’ve spread the word to all my friends in media – this could finally eliminate window dubs.

A useful (for me, at least) version of this program would allow you to paste a transcription of an interview, meeting, etc., into the notes box, and then be able to merely click on the notes to insert time code – this would make editing long speeches a breeze. I’ve already figured out a workaround (click to add timecode, paste the first page of transcription, follow along with the speaker, click to add timecode when the page is finished, paste the second page, etc.), but being able to click and insert time code within existing text would be a helpful variation for me. Great work, Josh!

Love this. I produce cartoons at Nickelodeon and have to watch episodes many times over to log ADR, Music Spotting, sound effects spotting and other stuff. I scrub through QTs and have a spread sheet open at the same time. This is better EXCEPT the quicktimes I get already have burned in time code and the beginning isn’t 1:00:00:00. It usually starts ins ome negative territory because of opening titles and stuff. eg, 59:00:39:13.

So for the me, to really be useful, it would be great to have a “zero reset” or some such thing so I could lock your tc with the tc that’s burned on my picture. I have to use the burn TC because that’s what sfx, mx, and others use for reference.. Thanks1

I’d second the request for load notes – a massive time saver. I really like the slick, minimalist feel of the program – well done. Will you notify those who’ve commented when the pro version comes out?

Looking good. I used it to log a 30 minute clip already. I see some good suggestions posted here, so I won’t repeat them, except to say that it’s always better [and faster] if we can use a keystroke instead of the mouse.

Here comes the rubber test: I’m just about to invite a busy, non-techie professor to try QT Notetaker on her PC to log some footage for a project. She has a tv production background, so it won’t be a totally alien concept for her. We’ll see if she picks up QTMN and finds it useful, or goes back to typing her log comments in Word.

The program is great but I would like to be able to log according to the original timecode from the captured clip as it appears in the viewer of FCP. Otherwise my log notes do not do me much good. Is this possible?

I just tried out DictaMac, a nice utility to transscribe for instance interviews, and compared it with Notetaker.
The advantage of Dictamace is that you autmatically can run and rerun parts of the file in your preferred tempo and time. The great disadvantage is that you cannot insert timecodes with one click as in Notetaker.

If you could add the the same functionality of Dictamac regarding its rerun facilities, that would make Notetaker ideal for me. And because transscribing interviews is a common thing for videomakers, maybe for a lot more people.

I am looking for a field tool during production. something that will ‘SEE’ or ‘READ’ the timecode off the camera LIVE. Then, be able to type a quick note about that moment in time. Kind of like a digital notepad and timecode reader that work together. This is crucial for making interview notes, or noting BEST takes, etc. It would speed up production tremendously. Please let me know if this is something in the works, or if it can be implemented. Thanks.

Additionally:
– the ability to add OUT points as well as IN points would open up a load of extra possibilities… I’m currently marking up a movie for subtitling, and this feature would allow me to (pretty well) generate an STL format subtitle file right in QTMN.
– add in the ability to export a tab delimited text file and you’re as good as there.

Pal, it is wonderfull !! Unfortunatly I did’t know it a week ago. I had to to some subtitles on an american documentary, translating it to portuguese and I had bad times doing the synch of images (the bla bla bla of the mouthes) and the subtitles in portuguese.
I’m sure that the next time I will have better and easy times.
Congratulations and THANKS A LOT !

Three requests:
-Access to the QT A/V controls for slow motion.
-Ability to ‘nudge’ the notes (one at a time or as a group)
-Ability to save the notes with the file, to re open or send the anotated version of the QT.

I have an odd question, or “problem”:
I’m working with a client. we need to create STILLS from movie slips:

I sent small video clips to a client and the link to QTMNT (XP Vers) (I’m on a Mac)… All of our output files are .wmv (448×336 size) down through F4Mac, found out that the the XP vers, of QTMNT won’t read the .wmv files… had to “reconvert” them to .mov.

that was “prob.” #1.

#2:
But after getting comments back from the client, they said that some of the stills I created were up to 1 full sec. OFF from what she put in QTMNT as the time to create the still. On more investigation I am finding if I play a clip in MNT over and over, I sometimes get VERY DIFFERENT visual results at any given timecode?!?!?!

Any ideas or help?? I’m just NOT sure what’s going on. I have over 125 stills that are being made from video clips

Just a suggestion for the Pro version along the lines of MNT accepting more formats. I work in professional sport, where we get DVDs of games to review and make notes as the game goes. To use MNT I’d have do rip the DVDs which would be impractical.

Is there the potential to accept DVDs or a VOB file as a source in the future? I would certainly pay for such a program.

Great tool! I’m on the Mac, and most of my logging comes from mov files sent to me on DVD’s rather than hard drive. It would be great if it had an unload movie function so I could keep this app open and continue to add notes to it for another movie while still being able to eject the DVD. Right now, I have to save my notes, close the program in order to release the DVD for eject, re-open the program, paste in my previous notes, and watch the next disc… a little time consuming. Thanks for a great program, though. Makes logging and review very easy.

I’m working on a documentary with many, many interviews. To help me organize all these interviews for editing, I need to place notes within the timecode to indicate the many key elements being discussed. After that’s completed and using my programming skills (I’m a programmer / database driven apps), I want to take that data and import into a SQL so I can query all the information showing me the common relationships (and/or the many other criteria possibilites) between all the interviews as well their timecodes. Using the Text file that QT Note Taker creates, I can easily import it and get the results I need. Nothing else does this (that I could find anyway). The closest thing I could find was Adobe’s Clip Notes but that was totally lame. You’ve done a great job!! Thanks!!

I just discovered this tool by watching back episodes of Videomaker Presents (it was mentioned in episode 18, IIRC). This looks like it will be very handy indeed!

One comment, though… the license indicates that we can’t redistribute it. This means we can’t give it to a client, our client would have to sign up here and download it themselves (since downloads are apparently restricted to members). Some might not mind, but I think it would be better if the license allowed distributing copies to our clients.

Anyway, it looks like a really great tool to have, and I’m looking forward to integrating it into our workflow.

It doesn’t display timecode.
Did I miss something in the info?
It starts all files at 00 00 00.
That is not what I need.
Quicktime player can do that.
I need a player, on machines that don’t have FCP,
that can display timecode during playback.
Sebsky Tools player will do it on the Mac,
but I need a Windows player for my Windows PC clients.

QT Movie Notetaker Pro yet? Just downloaded the free version which is great but as lots of others have already commented, the biggest “plus” will be a playback version where the client can click the timecoded comment and see the video alongside. Any thoughts regarding a “live” version for as it happens annotation and editing?

1. “Save” capability so that one could load a previously “saved” file (ie notes and reference quicktime.

2. It would be even more fantastic if it can print a “report” that might present as a table with screen grab (thumbs), relevant timecode and the relative note in one row. Perhaps export to PDF and/or html or excel.

Thanks for making it free!
I’m keen onthe Pro version too. When and what sort of cost would it be?

Just checking back to see if there has been an update… I’ve been using this great tool since last December. Now that QuickTime recognizes and makes use of SMPTE, it would be great if timecode could be logged instead of movie time.

I keep coming back here year after year to see the status of Movie Notetaker Pro. Seems like v 0.5 is still the current one. What’s the scoop, Josh?

We’d love to be able to open a saved Notetaker file have the movietime links be active again. As it is, now we have to copy and paste a text file content of a previously saved file and the links are gone. Thanks, Craig

This is a great tool; I think I found a bug though;
everytime I go off the application to my web browser, or itunes, or anything, the screen whites out. I have to resize the window to show everything again. Any way of causing this not to happen?
Thanks!

Ok, I found that downloading a new version fixed the above problem. It doesn’t seem to allow the email notes, and when you load notes you have saved, it doesn’t give you the hot links, which when sending to someone else, would be nice. Click on timecode, and it takes them right to the place in question, rather than having to scroll though. That would be my suggestion for the day!

Brilliant program. I have to find ‘chapter points’ for DVDs, it used to be easy when all came in on Digibeta tapes, though it needed a player and pencil and paper. But now most stuff comes in on file this is ideal….. nearly!

A couple of things on my wish list though:

1. The ability to SET the ‘zero point’. ie if I get a file with bars and tone on, then I’d like to be able to set 00:00:00:00 at the first frame of the feature (or 01:00:00:00, or 10:00:00:00 depending on local custom ‘ seems to vary from studio to studio and from country to country.) OK, I can run my TC through a ‘specially adapted Excel sheet’ to add or subtract the necessary offset, but it would be easier (much) to set it in the program.

2. (more important!) The ability to enter TC in the ‘movie time’ box above the display screen and to to that point in the movie… I’ve got numerous PC machine controllers which will do this with a Digi machine (using RS 422), to be able to do the same in a file (cutting and pasting from a list of TCs) would be totally awesome…. and VERY, VERY useful.

I think I just found a (very minor) bug! I am running this on a production machine which, of course, for security reasons is NOT connected to the ‘net – I have heard of too many horror stories of hackers getting into production machines, stealing assets and then blackmailing rights holders (you’d be surprised who is stupid enough to have production machines networked up to the wide, wide world, until they get stung for a few thousand – or hundred thousand – pounds, and anyway to insure the assets we hold for clients our insurance company will not allow production machines to be connected to the net in any way).

Anyway, I’d like to sign up for the ‘monthly DV Revolution Report’, but it’s no good pressing the button, ‘cos that machine is not on the net. No troubles,’cos it’s also installed on an office machine which is connected to the net…. BUT!!!!! On that machine the help text box drops off the bottom of the screen AND IT CAN’T BE RESIZED (the resolution on that machine is quite low because we’re all old and half blind here!)

So, if you could just make the help window resizeable, or (better still) forget these buttons which invariable start the ‘wrong’ browser (Explorer) and cause all sorts of troubles,and just write the URL instead. Copy and paste is really no more trouble than pressing a button (which then freaks out all the controls which STOP Internet Explorer opening up our machines to any passing bod on the ‘net – it’s Firefox only here – by order!!!)

The one this we’d request is that it read the Quicktime Timecode track for generating the timecode. For our purposes, the “movie time” it pretty useless as we need our notes to reference the SMPTE timecode associated with the master tapes (and embedded in the Quicktime Timecode track).

Josh,
You’ve given our industry a powerful, yet beautifully clean tool. Thank you! In addition to video logging, I produce high-end audio dramas, and Movie Note Taker works right along with me. The shuttle is so much more precise than the standard fare of what’s out there. And I love that nostalgic shuttle sound–reminds me of the bad old days of reels on tape.

Hi Josh!!
what an incredible usefull software you had made. I had shared it with my colleagues and my students at the university.
I´m a sound designer. This is the second time I use MNTaker to create de reference list for sound effects on big a big project.
Once I had entered all the timecodes with a brief explanation of the sound or type of sound, I copy the workspace and paste it on Excel. There I can create columns to separate the differents effects marked on MNTaker in the different categories. (If you send me an email adress I can give you an example)
And here´s is what I think the soft need to be perfect: It would be wonderfull that the text file created by MNTaker could keep the the time code links. This feature will need that MNTaker also could import this text file, so you can navigate the movie using the time code list created the firs time.
I really appreciate your imagination
Thank you

Great update guys, have been working with NoteTaker for a few years now and find it an invaluable tool for me. I have lost count of the number of people I have sent in your direction, directors, producers, editors, soundies, students all finding it fantastic.
I agree with some people who are asking for the ability to preset the code. I work a lot with TCIP wilds and rough cuts etc and it would be awesome to have t/c matching.
Apart from that a HUGE thanks and I am going onto the list for the Pro version!

Josh -nice tool, thanks. Please; jkl in all it’s useful combo’s from FCP ?!?! like in the age old UNIX editing tool ‘vi’, use an ‘escape’ command to bounce from ‘text editing / comment entering’ mode to ‘video control with jkl’ mode. how about command-j, using it to switch from comment editing mode to jkl video control and back again?!?! so, as we used to say in vi land, our fingers never have to leave our hands, or something like that. — go from text STRAIGHT back to jkl world, zim -zam -zwoooosh. thanks for your hard work and consideration.

Thanks for creating this great app! One thing I did notice is that if I try to load a clip which has Chinese characters, I get the following error message:
“unable to load this movie…maybe it’s a weird mpeg format? Sorry!”
If I change the file title to something with no Chinese characters, the clip will load. I suspect the code was not written to handle double byte characters. Not an issue for most folks, but I work with a lot of Japanese film.

Hey Josh, Great Tool!I really love it! But it would be great if I could change the aspekt ratio (4:3 and 16:9)of the video window. And if I could jump to a timecode in the video by typing the the timecode in an input field or in the time field on top of the video window! Go for it…Frank

Great program, haven’t started using it too much just yet, but I have a feature request already.
I have a Mac Mini on my network attached to my TV. I use it to watch podcasts while I work on my iMac computer at my desk. I am always wanting to take notes and this app looks like it will be great for that.

Delima: I want to be able to watch the video on my Mac Mini (TV in my living room), but take notes remotely and to control the video starting and stopping it from my iMac. When I hear an interesting point I want to be able to switch to the QTMovie Note Taker app, on my iMac and rewind a bit, then click the note take button and jot my note, then press play to resume the video.

This program is almost EXACTLY what I need, except for one problem. The time codes in the Quicktime files I am watching are not embedded. So, for example, when the start time code on my video file will be something like 12:29:35:04, the Notetaker resets to 00:00:00:00 when I start playing the file.

Is there any way around this? I could really use the hell out of this great little program if I could somehow tell the program what my video’s TC is.

Josh, Just wanted to say that I’m another huge fan of this utility, and am grateful that you released it into the wild for free. I also wanted to second Zack’s question: do you have a realistic time-frame for the pro version? Judging from this thread, it seems to have been just around the corner–since 2006! Not complaining, just asking politely. And if your other projects have a higher priority–or higher revenue!–and there’s no real plan to update QTMNT, I believe everyone would understand and appreciate knowing that. Again, please take this as a constructive suggestion from a fan, not an attack. Thanks again for the really great app and for sharing it with us. –Jeff

As a composer and occasional music editor on films, I might actually give the Pro version a try. For years I’ve been looking for a substitute for Opcode’s old Cue application: http://www.olypen.com/rickj/pages/download.html … there is apparently a new beast on the way, called CueTime – http://www.cuetime.com —, but it’s been in Windows alpha and beta for years, even though they already worked with it on “Avatar”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_jqagIsljU … for a music editor a standard video note-taking software is not sufficient, even if it’s a Pro version, because I would still have to manually transcribe spotting notes and TC in- and out-points to other applications like score/cue managing utilities and audio/MIDI sequencers… but I’m still hoping your pro version will at least in part do the trick. Looking forward! 🙂

I would like to know
how it’s possible to reload the notes in Movie Note Taker
and keep the movie time links active in between sessions ?
At the moment, if i quit the application and then go back to it,
i loose the links

Great app, but for me to really be able to use I need for this to either read the embedded timecode in the QT Movie or another solution would be for me to be able to set the movie timecode. Something that allows me to park on a frame and set the timecode at that frame – setting movie timecode for the whole movie based on that…would be perfect.

Hello ! Great programm ! Is there the posibility to open the original video which was “noted” by nother person by this soft, and to open the notes that I received by mal so as to see the video and the notes so as to read the notes and jump with this feature through the video ?

Hello ! I need to know if it is possible to open the notes together with a video file, and to see them with the links so as to jump to the places where notes were taken, like the moment when you take notes. If I copy paste the text, I do not see the links. Thanks ! Pablo